Anita Van Buren is a fictional character on NBC's long-running police procedural and legal drama television series Law & Order, portrayed by S. Epatha Merkerson.
[4] In 1997, it was noted that "Van Buren was one of the first and is still one of the few female African-American characters in network television to hold a position of power standing over the desks of white professional men telling them how to do their jobs.
"[5] The Associated Press once described Van Buren as a character with typically "limited screen time...whose practical function is to point her detectives in the story's next direction.
"[6] After many years on the procedural drama, Merkerson was "rewarded with a personal crisis for her character—a life-threatening bout with cervical cancer—that gave her some fine, if fleeting, opportunities to show Van Buren's rarely glimpsed vulnerability.
TV critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz called the season-five Law & Order character lineup (featuring Van Buren, McCoy, Mike Logan, Lennie Briscoe, Claire Kincaid and Adam Schiff) the single-best character combination in the Law & Order universe, dubbing them "the '27 Yankees of L&O casts, featuring not only Hall of Famers at every position but the very best example of each respective role in the franchise's history.
"[9] A textbook on management of state and municipal police departments described Anita Van Buren as a "good example of an operational supervisor as a strong leader...Nothing seems to get by her.
Due to this, Lennie Briscoe later tells Rey Curtis that “she hates the hell out of going to court.” [11] In another, she nearly loses her job when she sues the NYPD for promoting a white woman with less seniority ahead of her.
However, this acceptance does not seem to last long; in the seventeenth season finale "The Family Hour", Van Buren berates the detective for her inability to keep her temper in check and suggests that Cassady has no future in the 27th Squad.
He spent time at Tulsa VA Hospital in Oklahoma and his wife later claimed that he would have died if it had not been for the excellent care that he received from the medical staff.
In season 20, Van Buren sees an OB/GYN and is diagnosed with Stage II cervical cancer, caused by the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV)—which she contracted from Donald, who had been cheating on her.
She is so dedicated to her job that she refuses to use medical marijuana because, at the time, it is illegal; however, she starts using it after the Chief of Detectives, a testicular cancer survivor, says he will look the other way if she keeps it discreet.
However, in the final episode of the season (and ultimately the series, at the time), "Rubber Room", her health appears to have improved: she receives a call from her doctor, looks back at her colleagues and whispers "Thank you...Thank you" to herself.